International passenger railway connections in the BSR: situation and development possibilities Jūrmala, Artūrs Caune

Cities Population Economy Railways

General trends Population decrease except Scandinavia and Finland High GDP per capita and low growth rates vs. Low GDP per capita and high growth Total length of railway lines decreases, significant decrease in Poland, Germany, Sweden Increase in passenger flows, except for Latvia, Lithuania, Germany and Poland

General trends - 2 Cities above 25000: population decrease by 2,9% In important regional centres and MEGAs: decrease even more significant: -6,1% and -5,7 respectively International railway service available for % of the population in the BSR living in cities above 25000

Railway infrastructure and service 1435mm: shorter routes / higher speeds 1520/1524mm: average route length 680km, average speeds 4,5% below average Combined gauge routes: 1412km, speeds 8,5% below average Average service speed in route: ~ 60km/h Highest service speeds: Berlin-Warszawa: Copenhagen-Stockholm, Helsinki-Moscow, Malmo- Copenhagen, Copenhagen-Goeteborg Berlin-Hamburg: 170km/h

Railway infrastructure and service

Slow routes Berlin-Kaliningrad Gdansk/Gdyna- Kaliningrad Warszawa – St.Petersburg Tallinn-St.Petersburg SPEEDS BY km/h If compared by istance on air – even considerably slower speeds!

Competion with air traffic? Even in routes between 200 and 400 km travelling by plane is 2 times faster In routes above 600 km travelling by plane is from 4,3 to 5,7 times faster... Routes: strings or bananas or even snake? Distance on air between end stations of the route – 1,5...2,2 times shorter than the route

Challenges or realistic tasks? Link the city-regions on both sides of the border by fast train (sucess story Copenhagen – Malmo): Why not Helsinki and Tallinn; Berlin – Szczecin? Link MEGAs with 1435mm gauge: Helsinki, Turku, St.Petersburg, Tallin, Riga, Vilnius, Minsk

Challenges or realistic tasks? Improve service speeds up to 100 km/h in shorter routes up to 400km Improve service speeds in longer routes up to 150 km/h (high – speed railways) How? Strings not snakes; upgrade from speeds of XIX century to the ones of XXI century